Senior Airport Lead

This full-time / permanent role reports to the Duty Airport Operations Manager and is based in our London Heathrow Office. The purpose of the role is to oversee and supervise the daily assigned team member functions to ensure overall operations run smoothly and efficiently during the operational shift whilst conforming to established safety and security standards. To deliver the best possible operation and airport service experience to ensure our customers always feel special, valued and recognised regardless of circumstance.

Key Responsibilities

• Safety First, Quality Always
  • Rigorously execute corporate safety, security and quality policies to ensure the station, employees and suppliers are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements and quality standards.
  • Achieve absolute operational integrity with zero safety defects and security infringements.
  • Deputise as the Airline’s Operational Duty Holder (ODH) of the airport adhering to the risk escalation process to the Functional Duty Holder (GM ASD).
• Operational Excellence
  • Manage and oversee Ground Handling Agent teams dedicated to Cathay flight operations to achieve operational excellence of being on time and error free.
  • Assist in ensuring and maintaining operational and productivity performance conformance to standards.
  • Support airport management to conduct regular Quality Control checks on station performance including provision of service by suppliers as required.
  • Conduct flight briefings as required.
  • Willing to take up extra responsibilities (e.g. projects) and work shift duties.
• Outstanding Product and Services
  • Ensure people and team are up-to-date with the latest product knowledge and support the team to effectively utilise products and services to provide the highest possible quality of experience for our customers across all touch points.
  • Support the use of new technologies in the provision of customer service.
• Crisis Management capability and preparedness
  • Familiarity with all contingency plans and manual fall-back procedures to meet the required standards.
  • Effectively manage flight disruptions and irregularities and support airport management as required.
  • Ensure our customers are cared for, informed and given choice where possible through the use of disruption management tools.
• People and team
  • Motivate and inspire the frontline team (suppliers included) to enable supportive and collaborative teamwork.
  • Support the on-boarding process and probation of new hires (suppliers included).
  • Support and encourage the team (suppliers included) to learn and develop through role modelling, mentoring or on-the-job coaching.
  • Support the team to adopt new challenges and changes.
  • Monitor and review day-to-day team and / or individual team member performance (suppliers included) and raise suggestions for improvement.
• Supplier Management
  • Assist in monitoring and conducting regular performance review meetings with suppliers.
  • Support the Airport Operations Manager to implement any action plan efficiently and keep track of progress with documented records.
• Cost efficiency and productivity
  • Monitor team daily productivity and flexibility in resource deployment.
  • Support the Airport Operations Manager to drive down costs in daily operation.
• Represent Cathay interests in the Airport Community
  • Support the Airport Operations Manager to work with external parties in the best interests of the Company – authorities, suppliers and service providers, one world Partners, and other airlines.
  • Ensure competition compliance involvement in airport-related industry affairs (i.e. AOC).
• E&A
  • Emergency & Accident and Crisis Response responsibilities as required.

Requirements

• Academic qualifications
  • Post-secondary school education is desirable.
  • High school graduation as a minimum.
• Knowledge, skills, training and experience
  • Strong command of written and spoken English is mandatory with the local language being an advantage.
  • At least 3 years solid Customer Service experience, preferably in airlines or airport services.
  • Ability to work independently with good decision‑making skills.
  • Self‑motivated and committed leader who enjoys teamwork.
  • Very strong customer service mentality with strong interpersonal and leadership skills.
  • Sound technical knowledge and capability (multi‑skilled) to perform each airport job function (requirement to pass all training arranged by ASD).
  • Thorough understanding of Company policies and international regulatory procedures and all required local regulatory matters.
  • Ability to handle different operational modes such as normal operations, disruption, Emergency & Accident and contingency situations.
  • Adapts to and embraces constant change.